COVID-19 seems the biggest threat to collective public health and socioeconomic stability in a long time. At this juncture, it’s hard to see anything positive that this event has offered us. Nonetheless, I think it’s worth offering some different perspectives for a change.
Firstly, the extent and severity of an epidemic like this is can be an important wake-up call for us to make systemic changes to our healthcare systems on a local and global scale, to ensure that we can adequately respond to health emergencies of similar calibre in the future. The risk of biological catastrophes is something that has been identified by many leading thinkers and organisations as one of humanity’s biggest problems, one that we are still extremely under-equipped to deal with. In the best case, investing in reforming healthcare systems and expanding response capabilities will help us to better manage the next outbreak when it arrives.
From an environmental perspective, the global response to the coronavirus pandemic provides encouraging evidence that drastic reductions in carbon emissions are possible if we make a concerted effort to do so. In February 2020, a month after China’s official government response to the outbreak, the country’s level of CO2 emissions was reduced by a quarter. This will no doubt play out across many other industrialised countries around the world, as economies slow down in response to global travel bans, stay-home notices and quarantines.
This by no means saying that the prospect of economic recession is a good thing. However, we do need planned de-growth of the economy if we want to manage our global emissions and stave off climate change. Not only is this good for the planet, it can be better for people as well.
But beyond all that, it’s important to see the lessons it can offer on a personal level.
I think it serves as a reminder that we should never take anything for granted, and that we, or the things we value, could be gone in an instant. Maybe, it gives us all a wake-up call to live our lives more fully, to make the most of our time here while we can. Because regardless of any imminent threat, the time we spend in this little corner of the universe is brief enough as it is.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remind ourselves that we can’t always control the things that happen to us – but we can always control how we respond to them. In every instance, you can always choose to be grateful for life and the boundless opportunities it gives you.
Emman's journal 